Also, one of the founders of the Italian Renaissance (Cinquecento) is no less famous humanist than Petrarch, the poet and novelist Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375). A contemporary of Petrarch, his friend and closest literary and spiritual associate, Boccaccio began his career as a poet, not without the influence of Dante and Petrarch. For some time he lived in Florence as a fan of Dante, did a lot to spread Dante's legacy, lectured on the work of the great poet, spoke especially highly of the Divine Comedy.
His origins left an imprint on Boccaccio's work: he was born in Paris, his father is an Italian merchant from Florence, his mother is French. As an infant, Boccaccio was taken to Italy and has not been to Paris since. The duality of life did not allow, to some extent, Boccaccio to become that whole person that time required. But at the same time, it was the duality of life that instilled in the future writer that knowledge of life, without which he would not have taken place as a novelist, laying down new methods of artistic representation in literature. Because Boccaccio managed to note the most unknown, inconspicuous, small features of real life and express in the work in their terrible ugly ugliness, which prevents a person from truly feeling the joy of life, which the writer portrayed so vividly, so naturally, like no one before him in literature. Therefore, as a young man, he deliberately, against the will of his father, avoided the fate of being a merchant and a boring, self-serving lawyer, and became a writer.
In the life of Boccaccio, like Dante, Petrarch had his own Muse. She did not leave such a mark in literature as Beatrice, Laura, but she became the image of Fiametta, the heroine that permeates almost every work of Giovanni Boccaccio in almost all the works of the novelist. This name hides the real life Maria d'Aquino, according to some sources, the illegitimate daughter of the King of Naples, Robert of Anjou.
Just as Petrarch played in the name of Laura (Laura - laurel), so Boccaccio did not accidentally give his heroine the name Fiametta: literally a light. A living flame that kindles real earthly natural love. In this, the muse of the writer differs from Beatrice Dante - he has a divine spirit, a pure soul; from Laura - a real woman, but Petrarch's love is still not so much earthly, but rather sublime, ideal. In addition, unlike his brothers in writing, Boccaccio lived with Maria for some time, gaining recognition from her for his writing talent. He did not cease to speak of her naturally enthusiastically even after parting with her. That is why the theme of love in the writer's work becomes the main one in his artistic views.
The early works of Boccaccio in their own way prepared him for the novel The Decameron, which became the result of the writer's creative development, an expression of his own artistic style and vision. Whereas in the stories "Filocolo" (the first story), the poems "Filostrato", "Tezeid", "Ameto", "Love Vision", "Fiezolana Nymphs", "Fiametta" there are a lot of trends from ancient literature (their lyrical works of Virgil, Ovid, artistic references to ancient myths are constant), in the works one can find Dante’s motifs, refractions of French literature, and most importantly, in almost all of Boccaccio’s works, texts are presented in an organic interweaving of prose with poetry. Thus, new genre developments in literature are created.
Behind the external plot of fiction, the features of real people appear, the hidden nature of a person becomes visible, which is typical only for this era. Thus, in the pastoral Ameto, through the bucolic nature, the feelings of modern man break through, already concealing their experiences within themselves. Her hero, a savage shepherd, ceases to be such under the influence of the sophistication of the nymphs around him. He is no longer afraid to show his passion. He realizes that it is criminal, unnatural to remain silent about his feelings. Boccaccio expresses the manifestation of human nature especially violently in the poem "The Fiesolan Nymphs". Cheerfulness, irony, satire of the writer found their way out in the depiction of the love of two young people Afriko and Menzola. Here you can see the real experiences of a person:
Cupid tells me to sing. The time has come.
He spent the summer in his heart, as in a house.
Splendor bound my heart,
The brilliance blinded; I didn't find a shield
When rays pierced the soul
Shine of eyes. She owns me
What, night and day of tears and sighs
Weaving, tormenting - the fault of my torment.
Cupid leads me and encourages me
In the labor that I dared to begin!
Cupid strengthens me for a feat,
And the gift and power - all his seal!
Cupid guides me and enlightens me,
Inspired me with the duty to tell about it!
Cupid raised me to recreate
An old love story!
The goddess Diana is deliberately introduced into the poem, asserting a medieval asceticism, demanding to despise men, as befits the Amazons. The poet creates a kind of satire on it, urging people not to be embarrassed, not to be ashamed of their natural feelings, and most importantly, not to enslave human nature with false arguments about the primacy of spirit over matter. For the first time, Boccaccio appears as a champion of the natural principle in man. Such an image was a new word in literature and carried a developing beginning.
In the story "Fiametta" Boccaccio first made an application for the display of human psychology, thereby approaching the realism of the image. Taking as a basis the story about the discord of lovers and placing the experiences of the heroine in the foreground, Boccaccio achieved a deep analysis of the human soul, which was conveyed through the appropriate narrative technique - the monologue of the heroine. It was also new that for the first time in European literature, the active heroine in the center of the narrative was a woman, who had previously been only the subject of high chants and love sighs. True, Boccaccio did not quite succeed in conveying the vital features of an earthly woman. Fiametta carries a certain artificiality inherent in the traditions of medieval literature. Nevertheless, her image was the first experience of the writer's close attention to the inner side of human nature.
The path to the Decameron was paved by Boccaccio by his violent political activity in his native Florence in the mid-14th century. Many reflections and experiences of the writer of those years formed the basis of the Decameron. In Florence, Boccaccio headed one of the craft workshops in the struggle for a better life. The speeches of the Florentine artisans were perhaps the first in Europe, reaching open skirmishes with the ruling power. These were anxious years 1343-1345 with the slogans “Down with taxes!”, And “Death to fat townspeople!”, Then the unrest of artisans swept almost all of Italy, this is the so-called ciompi movement - laborers. So in 1371 there were performances in the Tuscan cities of Perugia and Siena. In Florence in 1378, after the death of Boccaccio, a real ciompi uprising broke out. And although the writer did not live to see this date, the movement of artisans was reinforced by the recent bright deeds of Boccaccio.
Italian life in all its perspectives, nuances and subtleties of the manifestation of human nature has broadly, deeply, objectively entered the artistic panorama of the novel The Decameron, written by Boccaccio according to approximate data in 1352-1354.
The writer was well aware of medieval literature, its genre features, ancient literature, to a greater extent its Greek pages, studied the origins of folk literature, its folklore beginning, from which he drew many techniques, means of reflecting reality. Boccaccio paid attention to what was at the epicenter of folk wisdom, was the basis of a living spoken language, everything that caused healthy folk laughter and contempt and ridicule of the same force. And just like Dante, who solved the enormous tasks of improving a person, so Boccaccio chose the only true genre at that time - a short story. It was this genre that would have reached the mind and heart of every person, and not just a person of dignitary, important ranks, which the writer was less concerned about, although Boccaccio had such a person in the first place in mind. Democracy, accessibility needed Boccaccio. Therefore, the short story became a kind of amazing tool - a public mouthpiece that allowed Boccaccio to talk about the most secret corners of human nature in general.
Novella (from Italian, news) - a narrative prose genre, less often poetic, represents a small form of epic. Often the term "short story" is used as a synonym for the Russian term "story", but the short story has its own specific features. The short story should be considered as a specific and, in particular, concrete historical type of a small form of narration. The small form of storytelling has existed since the dawn of literature. New in the proper sense arises precisely in the Renaissance. For the first time, the short story takes shape in Italian literature of the 14th-15th centuries. The plots of the novella were borrowed from previous literature and folklore. But the revival short story is fundamentally different from the short story of the previous time.
In the Renaissance, the process of becoming a personality, individual human consciousness and behavior takes place. Under feudalism, a person acted as a particle of a certain community of people - estates. Knightly or monastic order, workshop, peasant community. The man did not have a personal will, an individual attitude. And only in a new era begins the process of releasing the personal principle in each individual person. It is this complex historical process that causes the birth of a new literary genre - the short story.
In the short story, for the first time, a multilateral artistic development of the personal, private life of people is carried out. Early literature depicted people in their directly social activities, in their "official" appearance. Even if it was about love, family relationships, friendship, spiritual quest or the struggle for the existence of an individual, the hero of the work acted primarily as a representative of a certain community of people, perceived and evaluated everything around him, himself - his behavior, consciousness from the point of view of interests and ideals. this community. Hence, personal relationships did not receive a full and independent display. Although in previous literature there was a sphere of literature where the private life of a person was depicted, it was depicted in a comic, satirical form (farce, satire, fablio), and a person acted in his base, pitiful, unworthy features. Such literature did not create objectivism in the depiction of man. And only the short story finally brought literature closer to an objective image of an individual person with his - personal - problems, experiences, his whole life.
The short story objectively, many-sidedly, large-scale and intently reflects human nature. Hence, the short story usually displays the private actions and experiences of people, their personal, sometimes intimate details. But that doesn't mean. That the short story is devoid of social sharpness, social and historical content. On the contrary, in the conditions of the collapse of the feudal system, the liberation and formation of the individual acquired the most acute social meaning. This in itself was a rebellion against the old world. This determined the severity of the conflicts reflected in the short story, although it was often about everyday everyday situations.
The new content also determined the novel's innovative artistic form. If previously pronounced genre canons dominated in literature - ode and satire, heroism and farce, tragic and comic, then the prosaic neutral style is characteristic of the short story. Recreating the versatility, multicolored elements of private life. At the same time, the short story is characterized by sharp, tense action, the drama of the plot, because in it the personality collides with the laws and norms of the old world. The action of the novel takes place in ordinary, everyday life, but the plot tends to be unusual, sharply disrupting the measured course of everyday life.
The artistic originality of the novel is rooted in the contradictory combination of a picture of prosaic, everyday life and sharp, unusual, sometimes even fantastic events and situations, as if exploding from within the habitual, orderly movement of life.
Boccaccio in The Decameron draws on the vast heritage of created literature (antique, folk, medieval, borrowed from other literatures, such as oriental, for example, etc.). But putting forward the glorification of the “healthy sensual principle” in a person as its goal, it comes to a greater extent not from literary sources familiar to the medieval reader - for example, the Novellino collection, which consisted of 100 small everyday stories, anecdotes about a person and human life, but from the work of Dante most notably from his Divine Comedy.
How Dante Boccaccio creates a holistic canvas of the image of human nature - as it is. And sketching a multicolored palette of human diversity, the writer thought about what urgently needs to be freed from a person. Therefore, internal compositionality has much in common with the construction of Dante's "Divine Comedy": 100 short stories, the first introductory one, revealing everything unworthy that is in a person according to the principle of gradual exposure of the inner nature of an individual as one of the types of humanity - as an entry into the abyss of Dante's hell, the statement cheerfulness, life-affirmation of a person as in the purgatory of the Divine Comedy and, finally, Boccaccio's vision of such a state system that would allow a person to reveal only the best aspects of his nature - this is the construction of an ideal society in the novel according to the principle of the life order of the characters as in Dante's Paradise.
At the same time, Boccaccio uses his own distinctive artistic technique - he goes in his story according to the mathematical principle - “inversely proportional”: presenting the reader with a gallery of impartial characters, the writer thus requires each of us to understand what a person really needs to be at this moment life is a fleeting, impetuous moment, but the only one desired and needed by a person, because we have no other life.
Hence one hundred short stories in the novel: the number 100 as a call to humanity to harmony, to order, to unity with one's own nature. Therefore, what is new in Boccaccio's short story is that he not only creates a completely new genre, but that he turns it into a psychological excursion through the labyrinths of human nature. This is the main difference between Boccaccio's short story and all previous and modern literature.
At the same time, the writer himself names his work in different ways and uses the method of detachment so as not to impose his point of view on the reader for the emergence of other - non-authorial conclusions, which leads to the generation of not edification, but the manifestation of morality, naturally generated by the reader himself: “... I intend to inform to the aid and entertainment of those who love ... one hundred short stories, or, as we will call them, fables, parables and stories, told for ten days in the company of seven ladies and young people in the destructive time of the past plague ... In these short stories there will be funny and sad cases of love and other extraordinary incidents that have happened both in modern and ancient times. By reading them, the ladies will at the same time enjoy the amusing adventures told in them and useful advice, as they will know what they should avoid and what they should strive for. I think that both will do not without diminishing boredom; if, God willing, this is exactly what happens, may they thank Cupid, who, having freed me from his bonds, gave me the opportunity to serve their pleasure.
The characterization of academician A.N. Veselovsky is correct: “Boccaccio grabbed a living, psychologically true trait - a passion for life at the threshold of death.”
It is no coincidence that Boccaccio begins his narrative with a description of the plague - a real event in the life of European countries - from 1348. But the plague in the novel is both a historical event, and an artistic background as a plot, and a philosophical generalization about the results of human behavior and deeds. Boccaccio's description of the plague is comparable to Homer's Iliad, which began when "Phoebus the silver-armed, angry with the king, brought an evil plague on the army ... peoples perished ...". But the author of the Decameron is more prosaic, all the more terrible:
“So, I will say that 1348 years have passed since the beneficent incarnation of the son of God, when Florence. The most beautiful of all Italian cities, a deadly plague has befallen, which, either under the influence of heavenly bodies, or through our sins sent by the righteous wrath of God on mortals, a few years before opened in the regions of the east and, depriving them of countless inhabitants, constantly moving forward in place, reached, growing deplorably, and to the west ... ".
In an effort to protect themselves from the plague in its literal and figurative sense, the heroes of the novel, according to the author's plan, accidentally meeting in the church of Santa Maria Novella, leave their city, engulfed by the plague, to country estates - to the bosom of nature, where there is healthy air, where they not only preserve their health, but they will have a great (beneficially for themselves) time:
“Of these, we will call the first and eldest in years Pampinea, the second Fiammetta, the third Philomena, the fourth Emilia, then Lauretta the fifth, the sixth Neifila, the last, not without reason, Elisa. All of them, having gathered in one part of the church, not with intention, but by accident ... ".
The age of ladies and young maidens does not exceed 28 years and not less than 18 years of age. Then they were joined by three young men no younger than 25 years of age. These are Pamfilo, Filostrato and Dioneo. From the point of view of researchers, the names of the heroes of both beautiful ladies and young people carry certain biographical information of Boccaccio himself. Thus, under the name of Fyammetta, the collective image of his beloved is hidden, and under the names of young men - the writer himself at different times of his life periods.
The writer "leading" his characters away from the plague city, using extrapolation, creates a completely new world with them. And this world is not a ghostly idea, an imaginary ideal world like a utopia, but a completely achievable world in the form of a constitutional monarchy, of which the writer himself was a supporter. At the same time, Boccaccio takes into account all aspects and nuances of creating such a society and state structure.
The first thing the writer does is deliberately localize the given space: “It lay on a small hillock, on all sides somewhat removed from the roads, full of various shrubs and plants in greenery, pleasing to the eye.” Locality is necessary for the nascent world, since the real reality that exists around will give the world nothing but the plague and its consequences, firstly; and secondly, the new world should arise only from its pure "cells". The second thing that Boccaccio creates is a no less beautiful space of their being, in which everything is taken into account to the smallest details of ordinary life: “At the top there was a palazzo with a beautiful, vast courtyard inside, with open galleries, halls and chambers, beautiful both individually and in general, decorated with wonderful pictures; all around are clearings and lovely gardens, wells of fresh water and cellars full of expensive wines, which are more appropriate for their connoisseurs than moderate and modest ladies. To their no small satisfaction, the company found its weight swept by the time they arrived; prepared beds stood in the chambers, everything was covered with flowers, which could be obtained according to the season, and with reeds.
It is necessary to pay attention to the words “beautiful”, “wonderful”, “charming”, “fresh”, “expensive”, which convey the subtleties of a truly arranged ideal world. Such a beautiful natural world must correspond to the state organization of human life, which the author creates on the first pages of the novel. The heroine of Pampinea's novel, rightfully the eldest among all, utters the following words:
“... we will live happily, for no other reason than we ran away from sorrows. But since weight, which knows no measure, does not last long, I, who began the conversations that led to the formation of such a sweet society, wish our fun to be long, and therefore I consider it necessary for us all to agree that there should be someone in charge between us, whom we would honor and obey as the greatest and whose weight of thought would be directed to ensuring that we live happily. But in order that everyone may experience both the burden of care and the pleasure of honor, and in choosing from both, no one who has not experienced both, does not feel envy, I believe that each of us, in turn, should be assigned a day and a burden and honor: let the first be chosen by all of us, the subsequent ones are appointed ... "
These words present a clear image of a constitutional monarchy. Here the writer's own political views are manifested. The essence of the political views of the author of the Decameron is that, despite the active stormy performances of artisans almost throughout Italy, and especially in Florence and other southern city-states, and the fact that the writer himself headed one of the Florentine workshops, Boccaccio did not particularly believe due to illiterate common people. Therefore, advocating for the republican order, he leaned towards the monarchy, albeit a constitutional one.
At the same time, Boccaccio not only names the model of state power, but creates all the relevant structures of this government. The first thing we pay attention to is that the heroes go on a forced country trip with their servants who help them in leading this lifestyle:
“... they happily answered that they were ready, and, without delaying the matter, before dispersing, they agreed that they had to arrange for the trip. Ordering to properly prepare everything necessary and sending in advance to notify where they started to go, the next morning, that is, Wednesday, at dawn, the ladies with several servants and three young people with three servants, leaving the city, set off ... ".
Boccaccio, reflecting on the ideal form of government for the people, provided for the social division of society, if not into rich and poor, but masters and their servants. Servants in the novel enjoy the same privileges as their masters: they are not infringed or belittled in anything, they eat and drink the same "food" and "wine", they are just as free, they go about their business in their own time. Their only duty is to zealously, carefully look after the masters, which they do with great pleasure:
“... having entered the hall of the lower floor, they (gentlemen - it was emphasized by us M.D.) saw tables covered with snow-white tablecloths, the charms shone like silver and were strewn with blackthorn flowers. After water was supplied for the washing of the hands, by order of the queen, everyone went to the places appointed by Parmeno. Finely prepared dishes and exquisite wines appeared, and without wasting time or words, three servants began to serve at the table; and so everything was well and in order arranged, everyone was in a good mood and dined among pleasant jokes and fun. When they cleared the table, the queen ordered the instruments to be brought ... they began to play a lovely dance, and the queen, having sent the servants to dinner, formed a circle with other ladies and two young people and began to quietly walk in a circular dance ... ". Is it possible after this to note any humiliating or slavish attitude of masters towards their servants. The gentlemen themselves live according to the only main law: “we present our desire and demand to everyone in general who values our goodwill that, wherever he goes, wherever he returns, whatever he hears or sees, he refrains from telling us any news from the outside, except for cheerful ones. All news, each story should carry a charge of vivacity, life optimism, and also be, first of all, useful. And this is the unwritten law of the beautiful society of the Decameron.
Thus, having “arranged” an ideal society, Boccaccio, as the author, begins to create the corresponding human types according to this model of state government. Hence the philosophical idea to "force" their characters to talk about the various qualities of human nature. This is how the genre form of the novel is determined: “Decameron” means a ten-day book. For ten days, short stories are told on various topics - a kind of diary is kept according to the novel structure. The modern understanding of the diary is keeping records of any incidents of a person, with their analysis, which means that to a certain extent this is a reflection of the psychological characteristics of an individual. This is the difference between Boccaccio's short stories and medieval narrative genres. Even in the shortest stories there are elements of psychologism. Boccaccio is not categorical in his ideological attitude, does not impose his own judgments, but leaves acute, complex, and sometimes ridiculous problems to be solved by the reader himself. This does not mean that the author distances himself from the created situation. Already what the writer stops our eyes on is his active participation in the affirmation of a wonderful life, a clean life, a healthy person - primarily in a moral sense. In this regard, Boccaccio repeats Dante in a new way. And the only difference is that the writer of the Renaissance does not create the image of the terrible Lucifer, but brings him out from within - from the soul of every person contemporary to him, which in essence turns out to be much more terrible. That is, in the short stories of Boccaccio, a person exposes himself, his real inner “I”, as if looking into a living “talking” mirror.
That is why the artistic structure of the novel is integral, compact and at the same time multi-staged. After all, before the reader is not one short story, but a whole chain. There are some kind of one-act short stories built on a question-answer structure, but there are also multi-act ones where we meet with real vicissitudes of fate. And such novels come from the traditions of Greek novels. Sometimes the reader sees a colorful enchanting tale in front of him, which is in the spirit of oriental stories, otherwise he is faced with a whole novel unfolding within one short story. A similar artistic structure of the novel "The Decameron" in the spirit of the emerging revivalist literary tradition.
So, for example, the short stories of the first day are opened by a short story about a certain Sir Chappelletto, who during his lifetime was a super-deceiver, but while dying he managed to confess by cunning, and after death he was canonized as a saint. The first day includes novels with a short plot, which in essence has only one case. Such short stories are close to medieval epic literature.
This short story says that the hero was a notary “and it would be the greatest shame for him if any of his acts turned out to be not fake ... He bore witness with great pleasure, asked and unsolicited; at that time in France they strongly believed in an oath, and a false oath was nothing to him ... It was pleasure and concern for him to sow discord, enmity and scandals between friends, relatives and anyone else, and the more trouble came from him, the more he loves it."
Giovanni Boccaccio. Born June 16, 1313 in Certaldo, France - died December 21, 1375 in Certaldo, Italy. An Italian writer and poet, a representative of the literature of the early Renaissance, who, along with his idols - Dante and Petrarch - had a significant impact on the development of all European culture.
He was the author of poems based on the subjects of ancient mythology, the psychological story Fiammetta (1343, published in 1472), pastorals, and sonnets. The main work is The Decameron (1350-1353, published in 1470) - a book of short stories imbued with humanistic ideas, the spirit of freethinking and anti-clericalism, rejection of ascetic morality, cheerful humor, a multi-colored panorama of the mores of Italian society.
The illegitimate son of the Florentine merchant Boccacino da Cellino and a Frenchwoman. His family came from Certaldo, which is why he called himself Boccaccio da Certaldo.
Already in infancy, he showed a strong inclination towards poetry, but in the tenth year his father sent him to study with a merchant, who spent 6 whole years with him and was still forced to send him back to his father due to the young Boccaccio's ineradicable aversion to merchant employment. Nevertheless, Boccaccio had to languish for another 8 years over merchant books in Naples, until his father finally lost his patience and allowed him to study canon law.
After the death of his father (1348), Boccaccio was able to completely surrender to his penchant for literature. During his stay at the court of the Neapolitan King Robert, he became friends with many scientists of that time, among his close friends, in particular, the famous mathematician Paolo Dagomari, won the favor of the young Queen Joanna and Lady Mary, his inspirer, later described by him under the name of Fiammetta .
His friendship with him began as early as 1341 in Rome and continued until the latter's death. He owes it to Petrarch that he parted with his former wild and not quite chaste life and became generally more demanding of himself.
Boccaccio was the first humanist and one of the most learned men in Italy. At Andalone del Nero, he studied astronomy and for three whole years kept the Calabrian Greek Leontius Pilate, a great connoisseur of Greek literature, in his house to read Homer with him. Like his friend Petrarch, he collected books and copied with his own hands very many rare manuscripts, which almost all perished during the fire in the monastery of Santo Spirito (1471). He used his influence with his contemporaries to arouse in them a love for the study and acquaintance with the ancients. Through his efforts, a department of the Greek language and its literature was founded in Florence. He was one of the first to draw the public's attention to the miserable state of the sciences in the monasteries, which were considered their custodians. In the monastery of Monte Cassino, the most famous and learned in all of Europe at that time, Boccaccio found the library neglected to such an extent that the books on the shelves were covered with layers of dust, some manuscripts had sheets torn out, others were cut and mangled, and, for example, wonderful manuscripts and were streaked with inscriptions and theological controversy. There he learned, among other things, that the monks rip out sheets of parchment from manuscripts and, scraping off the old text, make psalters and amulets, earning money on it.
In 1349, Boccaccio finally settled in Florence and was repeatedly elected by his fellow citizens for diplomatic missions. So, in 1350 he was an envoy to Astarro di Polento in Ravenna; in 1351 he was sent to Padua to announce to Petrarch the annulment of the sentence of his exile and to persuade him to take a chair at the University of Florence.
In December of the same year, he received a commission from Ludwig V of Brandenburg, son of Ludwig IV of Bavaria, to ask him for help against the Visconti. In 1353 he was sent to Innocent VI in Avignon to negotiate the latter's upcoming meeting with Charles IV and later to Urban V.
From 1363 he settled on a small estate in Certaldo, living on meager means and completely buried in his books. There he contracted a long-term illness from which he slowly recovered. Through his efforts, the Florentines, who had once expelled their great citizen Dante, established a special pulpit to explain the latter's poem, and this pulpit was entrusted in 1373 to Boccaccio. The death of Petrarch upset him so much that he fell ill and died 17 months later, on December 21, 1375.
The monument to Boccaccio, erected on Solferinsky Square in Certaldo, was opened on June 22, 1879. A crater on Mercury was named in honor of Boccaccio.
Works by Giovanni Boccaccio:
Neapolitan period:
1334, erotic poem "The House of Diana" (La caccia di Diana)
OK. 1336-38, novel "Filocolo" (Filocolo)
OK. 1335-40, poem "Filostrato" (Filostrato)
OK. 1339-41, the poem Tezeida (Teseida delle nozze di Emilia).
Florentine period:
1341-42, pastoral novel "Ameto" (Commedia delle ninfe fiorentine; Ninfale d'Ameto; Ameto)
early 1340s, allegorical poem "Love Vision" (Amorosa visione)
1343-44, the story "Fiametta" (Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta; Fiammetta)
1345, poem "Nymphs of Fiesolano" (Ninfale fiesolano)
1350s: "Decameron" (Decameron)
1354-1355, a satirical poem against women "Corbaccio" ("Il corbaccio o labirinto d'amore")
OK. 1360, the book "The Life of Dante Alighieri" ("A small treatise in praise of Dante", "Trattatello in laude di Dante"; the exact title is "Origine vita e costumi di Dante Alighieri", first edition - 1352, third - until 1372)
The cycle of lectures on the "Divine Comedy" (Argomenti in terza rima alla Divina Commedia), incomplete
Treatise "On mountains, forests, springs, lakes, rivers, swamps and seas" ("De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis seu paludibus et de nominibus maris", begun around 1355-1357, lat.
"Genealogy of the Pagan Gods" in 15 books (De genealogia deorum gentilium, first edition around 1360, lat.
“On the misfortunes of famous people” (De casibus virorum et feminarum illustrium, first edition around 1360, in 9 books, lat.
On Famous Women (De claris mulieribus, begun around 1361) includes 106 biographies of women
Bucolic songs (Bucolicum carmen)
Sonnets
Letters.
Giovanni Boccaccio - Italian poet and writer of the early Renaissance, humanist. Born in 1313, presumably in June or July. He was born in Florence and became the fruit of the love of a Florentine merchant and a Frenchwoman. Perhaps it is because of his mother that some sources indicate the place of his birth in Paris. Giovanni himself called himself Boccaccio da Certaldo - after the name of the area where his family came from.
Around 1330, Boccaccio moved to Naples: despite the boy’s literary talent, noticeable from an early age, his father saw him in the future only as a merchant, so he sent him to learn the tricks of commerce. However, the young Boccaccio showed neither ability nor interest in trading. The father eventually lost hope that his son would continue his work, and allowed him to practice canon law. But Boccaccio did not become a lawyer either, his only passion was poetry, to which he got the opportunity to devote himself only much later, after the death of his father in 1348.
Living in Naples, Boccaccio becomes part of the entourage of King Robert of Anjou. It was during this period that he became a poet and humanist. His friends were scientists, educated people, influential people. Giovanni read ancient authors avidly, and the environment itself greatly contributed to the expansion of his ideas about the world. It is with Naples that a rather large period of his creative biography is connected. In honor of his muse, whom he called Fiametta in verse, he wrote a large number of poems; in addition, the poems "The Hunt of Diana", "Tezeid", "Filostrato", as well as a prose novel, were created, which were of great importance for the formation of new Italian literature.
In 1340, the father, who by that time was completely ruined, requested the return of Boccaccio to Florence, although he, as before, was indifferent to commerce. Gradually, the humanist began to participate in the political and social life of the city. In 1341, a friendship appeared in his life, which he carried through his whole life, with Francesco Petrarch. Through this relationship, Boccaccio began to take himself and life more seriously. Among the townspeople, he enjoyed great influence, he was often given diplomatic assignments on behalf of the Florentine Republic. Boccaccio devoted a lot of energy to educational work, aroused interest in antiquity, in the sciences, and personally rewrote old manuscripts.
In 1350-1353. Boccaccio wrote the main work of his life, which glorified him for centuries - "The Decameron" - a hundred short stories that were ahead of their time, creating a vivid panorama of Italian life, permeated with free-thinking, lively humor, and the ideas of humanism. Its success was simply stunning, and in different countries, into whose languages it was immediately translated.
In 1363, Boccaccio left Florence and arrived in Certaldo, a small estate, where he completely immersed himself in his books, lived, content with little. The closer old age loomed, the more superstitious Boccaccio became, the more serious he was about faith and the church, but to say that a turning point had occurred in his worldview would be a great exaggeration. This is evidenced by his work, and the apogee of friendship and unity of views with Petrarch. From the works written in these years devoted to Dante, literary criticism of a new type began to develop. He gave public lectures on the Divine Comedy until a serious illness knocked him down. The strongest impression on Boccaccio was made by the death of Petrarch, he outlived his friend by a little less than a year and a half. On December 21, 1375, the heart of the great humanist, one of the most educated people in Italy of his time, stopped.
The outstanding Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), like Dante, was born in Florence. Little is known about his childhood. Boccaccio was about fourteen years old when his father, a fairly well-known Florentine merchant, sent the young man to study as a major merchant in Naples, an important commercial and cultural center of Italy at that time. Only outwardly obeying the will of his father, Boccaccio devoted all his free time to the study of literature, especially Italian. Four years later, resigned to the fact that a merchant would not come out of his son, his father ordered him to study canon law, but the profitable profession of a lawyer did not attract Boccaccio either.
Thanks to the money and position of his father, Boccaccio was able to enter the secular and artistic society that surrounded the Neapolitan king Robert of Anjou. It was at this time that he met Giotto, the brightest figure of the Italian Renaissance, and was so impressed by the personality of this artist, architect, sculptor, poet and wit that he later made him one of the heroes of the Decameron. At the court of King Robert, Boccaccio also met Maria d "Aquino, who, in accordance with the concepts of medieval troubadour poets, became his lady of the heart, later Boccaccio brought her out in the Decameron under the name of Fiammetta.
During this period of creativity (1336-1340), Boccaccio created a large number of poems in praise of Fiammetta, two poems and the novel "Filocolo".
In 1340, his father's affairs went very badly, and Giovanni Boccaccio was forced to return to Florence. Boccaccio did not want to continue the work of his father and eventually became a diplomat in the service of the Florentine Republic, earning great authority in this field. At the same time, he continued to engage in literary creativity, created a number of works imbued with humanistic ideas. So, in Ameto, or the Comedy of the Florentine Nymphs, Boccaccio, in the form of the protagonist, the shepherd and hunter Ameto, represents an allegory of a man, at first rude and uncouth, and then softened under the influence of love and virtue so much that the transformed Ameto can contemplate the divine essence. The pinnacle of Boccaccio's work was the creation of a collection of short stories "The Decameron" (1350-1353). In the same years, Boccaccio wrote treatises "On the vicissitudes of the fate of famous people", "The Origin of Pagan Gods" and others.
In 1363, Giovanni Boccaccio moved from Florence to the small town of Certaldo, devoting himself entirely to literary pursuits, and above all to the work of Dante. Boccaccio created the biographical work The Life of Dante and a commentary on the Divine Comedy, and in the last year of his life (1375) he gave public lectures on Dante's great work.
Giovanni Boccaccio- Italian poet and writer of the early Renaissance, humanist. Born in 1313, presumably in June or July. He was born in Florence and became the fruit of the love of a Florentine merchant and a Frenchwoman. Perhaps it is because of his mother that some sources indicate the place of his birth in Paris. Giovanni himself called himself Boccaccio da Certaldo - after the name of the area where his family came from.
Around 1330, Boccaccio moved to Naples: despite the boy’s literary talent, noticeable from an early age, his father saw him in the future only as a merchant, so he sent him to learn the tricks of commerce. However, the young Boccaccio showed neither ability nor interest in trading. The father eventually lost hope that his son would continue his work, and allowed him to practice canon law. But Boccaccio did not become a lawyer either, his only passion was poetry, to which he got the opportunity to devote himself only much later, after the death of his father in 1348.
Living in Naples, Boccaccio becomes part of the entourage of King Robert of Anjou. It was during this period that he became a poet and humanist. His friends were scientists, educated people, influential people. Giovanni read ancient authors avidly, and the environment itself greatly contributed to the expansion of his ideas about the world. It is with Naples that a rather large period of his creative biography is connected. In honor of his muse, whom he called Fiametta in verse, he wrote a large number of poems; in addition, the poems "The Hunt of Diana", "Tezeid", "Filostrato", as well as a prose novel, were created, which were of great importance for the formation of new Italian literature.
In 1340, the father, who by that time was completely ruined, requested the return of Boccaccio to Florence, although he, as before, was indifferent to commerce. Gradually, the humanist began to participate in the political and social life of the city. In 1341, a friendship appeared in his life, which he carried through his whole life - with Francesco Petrarch. Through this relationship, Boccaccio began to take himself and life more seriously. Among the townspeople, he enjoyed great influence, he was often given diplomatic assignments on behalf of the Florentine Republic. Boccaccio devoted a lot of energy to educational work, aroused interest in antiquity, in the sciences, and personally rewrote old manuscripts.
In 1350-1353. Boccaccio wrote the main work of his life, which glorified him for centuries - "The Decameron" - a hundred short stories that were ahead of their time, creating a vivid panorama of Italian life, permeated with free-thinking, lively humor, and the ideas of humanism. Its success was simply stunning, and in different countries, into whose languages it was immediately translated.
In 1363, Boccaccio left Florence and arrived in Certaldo, a small estate, where he completely immersed himself in his books, lived, content with little. The closer old age loomed, the more superstitious Boccaccio became, the more serious he was about faith and the church, but to say that a turning point had occurred in his worldview would be a great exaggeration. This is evidenced by his work, and the apogee of friendship and unity of views with Petrarch. From the works written in these years devoted to Dante, literary criticism of a new type began to develop. He gave public lectures on the Divine Comedy until a serious illness knocked him down. The strongest impression on Boccaccio was made by the death of Petrarch, he outlived his friend by a little less than a year and a half. On December 21, 1375, the heart of the great humanist, one of the most educated people in Italy of his time, stopped.
Biography from Wikipedia
The illegitimate son of the Florentine merchant Boccacino da Cellino and a Frenchwoman. His family came from Certaldo, which is why he called himself Boccaccio da Certaldo. Already in infancy, he showed a strong inclination towards poetry, but in the tenth year his father sent him to study with a merchant, who spent 6 whole years with him and was still forced to send him back to his father due to the young Boccaccio's ineradicable aversion to merchant employment. Nevertheless, Boccaccio had to languish for another 20 years over merchant books in Naples, until his father finally lost his patience and allowed him to study canon law. Only after the death of his father (1348) did Boccaccio get the opportunity to completely surrender to his penchant for literature. During his stay at the court of the Neapolitan King Robert, he became friends with many scientists of that time, among his close friends, in particular, the famous mathematician Paolo Dagomari, won the favor of the young Queen Joanna and Lady Mary, his inspirer, later described by him under the name of Fiammetta .
His friendship with Petrarch began as early as 1341 in Rome and continued until the latter's death. He owes it to Petrarch that he parted with his former wild and not quite chaste life and became generally more demanding of himself. In 1349, Boccaccio finally settled in Florence and was repeatedly elected by his fellow citizens for diplomatic missions. So, in 1350 he was an envoy to Astarro di Polento in Ravenna; in 1351 he was sent to Padua to announce to Petrarch the repeal of his exile and to persuade him to take a chair at the University of Florence. In December of the same year, he received a commission from Ludwig V of Brandenburg, son of Ludwig IV of Bavaria, to ask him for help against the Visconti. In 1353 he was sent to Innocent VI in Avignon to negotiate the latter's upcoming meeting with Charles IV and later to Urban V. From 1363 he settled on a small estate in Certaldo, living on meager means and completely buried in his books. There he contracted a long-term illness from which he slowly recovered. Through his efforts, the Florentines, who had once expelled their great citizen Dante, established a special pulpit to explain the latter's poem, and this pulpit was entrusted in 1373 to Boccaccio. The death of Petrarch upset him so much that he fell ill and died 17 months later, on December 21, 1375.
The monument to Boccaccio, erected on Solferinsky Square in Certaldo, was opened on June 22, 1879. A crater on Mercury was named in honor of Boccaccio.
Humanist activity
Giovanni Boccaccio. Statue at the Uffizi Palace
Boccaccio was the first humanist and one of the most learned men in Italy. At Andalone del Nero, he studied astronomy and for three whole years kept the Calabrian Greek Leontius Pilate, a great connoisseur of Greek literature, in his house to read Homer with him. Like his friend Petrarch, he collected books and copied with his own hands very many rare manuscripts, which almost all perished during the fire in the monastery of Santo Spirito (1471). He used his influence with his contemporaries to arouse in them a love for the study and acquaintance with the ancients. Through his efforts, a department of the Greek language and its literature was founded in Florence. He was one of the first to draw the public's attention to the miserable state of the sciences in the monasteries, which were considered their custodians. In the monastery of Monte Cassino, the most famous and learned in all of Europe at that time, Boccaccio found the library neglected to such an extent that the books on the shelves were covered with layers of dust, some manuscripts had sheets torn out, others were cut and mangled, and, for example, wonderful the manuscripts of Homer and Plato were streaked with inscriptions and theological controversy. There he learned, among other things, that the monks rip out sheets of parchment from manuscripts and, scraping off the old text, make psalters and amulets, earning money on it.
Creation
Compositions in the vernacular
The early works of Boccaccio (of the Neapolitan period) include: the poems "Filostrato" (c. 1335), "Tezeida" (c. 1339-41), the novel "Filocolo" (c. 1336-38), based on the plots of medieval novels. Later works (of the Florentine period): The Fiesolan Nymphs (1345), inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, Ameto, and the story Fiammetta (1343). The pinnacle of Boccaccio's work is the Decameron.
In Italian, he wrote La Teseide (first ed., Ferrara, 1475), the first attempt at a romantic epic in octaves; "Love vision" ("Amorosa visione"); "Filocolo" ("Filocolo"), a novel in which the plot is borrowed from the old French romance of Fluard and Blancheflor; "Fiametta" ("L'amorosa Fiammetta", Padua, 1472), a touching story of the mental suffering of an abandoned Fiametta; "Ameto" (Venice, 1477) - a pastoral novel in prose and verse; "Filostrato" ("Il Filostrato", ed. 1480), a poem in octaves depicting the love story of Troilus and Cressida; "Il corbaccio o labirinto d'amore" (Florence, 1487) - a caustic pamphlet on women ("Corbachcio") (1354-1355, published in 1487).
Latin writings
Boccaccio is the author of a number of historical and mythological works in Latin. Among them is the encyclopedic work “Genealogy of the Pagan Gods” in 15 books (“De genealogia deorum gentilium”, first edition around 1360, treatises “On mountains, forests, springs, lakes, rivers, swamps and seas” (“De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis seu paludibus et de nominibus maris", begun around 1355-1357); 9 books "On the misfortunes of famous people" ("De casibus virorum et feminarum illustrium", first edition around 1360). women" ("De claris mulieribus", begun around 1361) includes 106 female biographies - from Eve to Queen Joanna of Naples.
Boccaccio on Dante
Dante Boccaccio dedicated two works in Italian - "A small treatise in praise of Dante" ("Trattatello in laude di Dante"; the exact title is "Origine vita e costumi di Dante Alighieri", the first edition - 1352, the third - until 1372) and unfinished a series of lectures on the Divine Comedy.
The first work contains a biography of the great poet, though more like a novel and an apology than a story; the second contains a commentary on the "Divine Comedy", carried only to the beginning of the 17th song of hell.
Decameron
The main work of Boccaccio, which immortalized his name, was his famous and glorified Decameron (10-day stories) - a collection of 100 stories told by a society of 7 ladies and 3 men who, during the plague, moved to the village and whiled away the time with these stories. The Decameron was written partly in Naples, partly in Florence, and Boccaccio drew its content either from the Old French Fabliaux or from Cento novelle antiche (Bologna, nelle case di Gerolamo Benedetti, 1525), as well as from contemporary events to the poet. The stories are presented in an elegant, light language, striking in the richness of words and expressions, and breathe life's truth and diversity. Boccaccio used a whole set of schemes and techniques. They depict people of all conditions, of all ages and characters, the most diverse adventures, from the most cheerful and funny to the most tragic and touching.
The Decameron has been translated into almost all languages (Russian translation by A. N. Veselovsky, M., 1891), many writers drew inspiration from it, and most of all Shakespeare.
List of works
Neapolitan period:- 1334, erotic poem "The House of Diana" (La caccia di Diana)
- OK. 1336-38, novel "Filocolo" (Filocolo)
- OK. 1335-40, the poem "Filostrato" (Filostrato)
- OK. 1339-41, poem "Tezeid" (Teseida delle nozze di Emilia)
- 1341-42, pastoral novel "Ameto" (Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine; Ninfale d'Ameto; Ameto)
- early 1340s, allegorical poem "Love Vision" (Amorosa visione)
- 1343-44, story "Fiametta" (Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta; Fiammetta)
- 1345, poem "Nymphs of Fiesola" (Ninfale fiesolano)
- 1350s: "Decameron" (Decameron)
- 1354-1355, a satirical poem against women "Corbaccio" ("Il corbaccio o labirinto d'amore")
- OK. 1360, book "The Life of Dante Alighieri" ("A small treatise in praise of Dante", "Trattatello in laude di Dante"; the exact name is "Origine vita e costumi di Dante Alighieri", the first edition - 1352, the third - before 1372)
- A series of lectures on the "Divine Comedy" ( Argomenti in terza rima alla Divina Commedia), not finished
- Treatise "On mountains, forests, springs, lakes, rivers, swamps and seas" ("De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis seu paludibus et de nominibus maris", begun around 1355-1357, lat.
- "Genealogy of pagan gods" in 15 books ( De genealogia deorum gentilium, first edition around 1360, lat. lang.
- "On the misfortunes of famous people" ( De casibus virorum et feminarum illustrium, first edition around 1360, in 9 books, lat. lang.
- "About famous women" ( De claris mulieribus, begun around 1361) includes 106 biographies of women
- bucolic songs (Bucolicum carmen)
- Sonnets
- Letters
Editions
The first edition of it, so-called. Deo gratias, published without year or place, second in Venice in 1471, both in folio and now extremely rare. ESBE called the best editions of Boccaccio the following: Poggiali (Livorno, 1789-90, 4 vols.); "Ventisettana" (Florence, 1827); critical edition of Biaggioli, with historical and literary commentary (Paris, 1823, 5 vols.); Hugo Foscolo (London, 1825, 3 vols., with historical introduction); Fanfani, together with Annotazioni dei Deputati (3 vols., Florence, 1857); pocket edition printed in "Biblioteka d'autori italiani" (vols. 3 and 4, Leipzig). "Opere complete" Boccaccio published (Florence, 17 v. 1827).
A review of Boccaccio's editions is found in Passano's book I novellieri italiani in prosa (Turin, 1878).
Many of Boccaccio's books were illustrated at the end of the 15th century by the French court miniaturist Robinet Testard.
